


Counterpoint

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-12-10
Updated: 2003-12-10
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:32:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1629275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oishi learns that not all change is bad.<br/>Pairings: OishixEiji, MomoshiroxRyoma, past TezukaxOishi</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counterpoint

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Becchan

 

 

" _One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering." --- Ida Scott Taylor_  
 

* * *

  


**COUNTERPOINT**

Kikumaru Eiji and Tezuka Kunimitsu are nothing alike. 

Despite this - or maybe because of it - they are the two most important people in Oishi Syuichiroh's life. 

Tezuka has always been someone Oishi respects and cares for deeply. He is Oishi's oldest and most trusted friend; someone Oishi knows can understand him even when there are no words. 

Eiji, on the other hand, is Oishi's doubles partner and best friend, a warm, cheerful constant in an otherwise changing world. He has been by Oishi's side as long as Oishi can remember, and their friendship is something that needs no acknowledgement, silvery threads of tingling warmth that flow through both their veins because they _know_ that the other will always be there.  
 

* * *

  


Even after junior high, when Eiji goes off to a different high school from Oishi and Tezuka - the two had always been high-fliers; that they would get into the top high school in the region was a _given_ \- Eiji and Oishi still remain good friends. It isn't something conscious so much as natural; they drop by each others' houses now and then, or meet up to play tennis on weekends (and beat everyone they play against, because, as Eiji proudly proclaims, they're the _Golden Pair_ , and perhaps that _does_ explain everything). 

In the closing years of high school, Oishi and Tezuka drift into a relationship of sorts. Neither thinks too much of it, for they spend so much time together every day - mostly inside school, but also out of it - that it just seems natural for them to progress to the next stage together. It goes, without being said, that although this isn't just casual sex, neither are they committing themselves to spending the rest of their lives with each other; it's just a comfortable arrangement for two friends who share much of their lives, and more than a little love. 

Oishi, a little hesitantly, tells Eiji about his relationship with Tezuka, not knowing how his capricious partner will react, but trusting that Eiji will support him because he _always_ does. Eiji does not disappoint; he congratulates his partner cheerily enough, but his eyes, usually so open and trusting, grow shuttered, and Oishi feels threads of _something_ shatter, hollow, tear-bright slivers reflected in the glittering, brittle blue of Eiji's gaze. 

It is at that moment that he realises the Golden Pair isn't unbreakable.  
 

* * *

  


In the following months, Oishi and Eiji begin to spend less time together. Eiji seldom comes by Oishi's house anymore, and whenever Oishi calls him out for tennis or a drink, Eiji always seems to be busy - after-school activities, homework (and Oishi _knows_ that Eiji would never let homework get in the way of their tennis; he's gotten by doing much less before), projects... 

The avoidance doesn't sting so much as the fact that Eiji doesn't tell him _why_ , and he wonders when it was that the once-solid trust between them became something so fragile, a spiderweb of cracked glass ready to fracture into tiny splinters at the slightest touch. 

And again, it all comes back to _why_. 

The times that they _do_ meet are slightly strained at best and downright awkward at worst. Conversation between them doesn't flow as it used to, and short pauses become long silences become embarrassed fumbling for something, _anything_ to talk about, before the stillness turns unbearable. 

Oishi vaguely knows that he can pinpoint the start of Eiji's strange behavior at around the time he told the other boy about his relationship with Tezuka, yet he cannot really bring himself to believe that the two events could be related. Eiji, he tells himself firmly, wouldn't be so petty as to begrudge him the fact that he is happy with Tezuka...but at the same time, he cannot help but feel a slight stab of disappointment-betrayal-sadness because he'd _thought_ he'd known that Eiji would be happy for him, yet it now feels like he doesn't even know Eiji anymore. Still, Oishi knows that Eiji has his reasons; he will accept this, even though he does not understand. 

Tezuka, in his own quiet way, sympathises, never prying but always offering silent support and a listening ear. Oishi now spends more time with Tezuka, the other's quiet calm a soothing counterpoint to the confusion-guilt (the thought _has_ occurred to him that maybe it's _his_ fault, but he's still not sure what he could have done wrong) he feels over the issue with Eiji. 

Oishi bites his lip and wishes that they could go back to the days in junior high, when love was pure and sweet and simple and all he had to know was that Eiji and Tezuka were both his best friends and that he loved them both.  
 

* * *

  


After graduation, Oishi and Eiji both go to local universities, while Tezuka accepts a scholarship to an overseas university. Oishi and Tezuka's relationship ends the same way it started, gently and gradually, a slow close to a sweet, transient period which gradually fades into the fabric of a dream-reality, almost as if it had never been. 

Oishi's and Eiji's universities aren't that far from each other; to Oishi's surprise, Eiji suggests that they share an apartment. Oishi readily agrees; privately, he hopes that maybe, somehow, they can fix the shattered fragments of what once was, and go back to the Golden Pair that they had once been. 

It's never that easy, of course; adjusting is initially difficult and they still tread a little gingerly around each other at first. But old habits die hard, and soon they settle into an awkward semblance of familiarity, and Oishi realises that it isn't so difficult after all, when it's just _that_ easy to recall Eiji's favourite brand of toothpaste, and how Eiji likes his toast just _so_ , and that Eiji always oversleeps so he has to give him a morning call...except that instead of making a phonecall, now it's as simple as walking into the next room to wake the other young man every morning. 

He still misses Tezuka, and realises - although he will not put it in words, because that would only make it more _palpable_ \- that maybe he's grown a little more attached to Tezuka than their unspoken 'no strings attached' had promised. But having Eiji around eases the ache a little, and figuring out the new dynamic between them has, for the most part, kept him busy enough to prevent him from moping. 

Not quite the Golden Pair they had once been, but things change - _people_ change - and this is a good middle ground, Oishi thinks. For now.  
 

* * *

  


He doesn't even remember when they went from being flatmates to bedmates; maybe they were just lonely, or maybe it happened because they went for a party and came back drunk; but does it really matter now? What he does remember is the morning after, when he wakes up with a pounding headache and a faintly sour taste in his mouth, to find Eiji watching him. 

When he realises that Oishi is awake, Eiji starts, and shifts slightly, ill at ease. He can't quite meet Oishi's eyes. 

"Oishi," he says, awkward, and there is something in his tone that Oishi does not understand, maybe does not want to understand. 

"It's fine," he cuts him off, because he doesn't feel quite _right_ with Eiji looking at him like that, like he's expecting something (- _but what?_ -) and Oishi can't quite put his finger on it, but it's right _there_ , swimming somewhere just beyond the fringes of his consciousness, niggling at him. 

"It's fine," he repeats. "Nothing's changed between us." 

"I - Oishi - " 

And now it's Oishi who cannot meet Eiji's eyes; feeling that burning blue gaze on him, yet still with the feeling that he's missing something, something that he should _realise_. And he adamantly does not look up because he's not sure that he's ready for whatever it is that he should know. 

"So...nothing's changed, then," says Eiji, rolling over and tugging the blankets with him. His voice is muffled as he adds, "I'm glad." 

This is a blatant lie and Oishi knows it; yet he cannot help but feel a shameful sense of relief when silence descends on the room again. 

It is not until a month later, when he has Eiji braced against the bed, sweat-slick skin against sweat-slick skin, Eiji sobbing his name into the mattress - / _yes_ , right _there_ , harder, oh _God_ , _Oishi_.../ - does he realise that Kikumaru Eiji is in love with him. And suddenly, everything - Eiji's withdrawal when Oishi told him about his relationship with Tezuka, the awkwardness between them when they first started sharing the apartment, Eiji's reaction the morning after they first slept together - makes horrible, piercing sense...but even then, helpless, all he can do is think of how it felt when Tezuka fucked him, Tezuka's hands, Tezuka's lips...Tezuka... _Tezuka_... - and he chalks up another notch on his list of sins, guilt in his heart and another's name on his lips. And always, always, a pair of sharp brown eyes which he cannot forget.  
 

* * *

  


Oishi realises that he should stop this, because it's not fair to either Eiji or himself, and the last thing he wants to do is to hurt Eiji. But he's already in too deep, and he doesn't know where to go from here. He berates himself for allowing this to happen in the first place, for thinking of it as just comfort between two friends, when it's obviously so much more than that to Eiji, and he should have _realised_ , should have done _something_ to stop things from getting to this point. 

One afternoon, after class has ended, Oishi goes to a cafe near his university to grab a cup of coffee, because he cannot bear to go straight back to his apartment and see a pale, quiet Eiji, and suffer through the same awkward, deafening silences that plagued them through the later years of high school. To his surprise, he ends up bumping into Momoshiro, whom he has not seen since their years in the tennis club in junior high. They spend the larger part of the afternoon chatting; Momoshiro is much the same as Oishi remembers him, all warm, joking manner and easy smiles. He is, apparently, now sharing an apartment with Ryoma not very far from where Oishi and Eiji stay. Momoshiro ends up inviting Oishi for dinner with them that night, an invitation which Oishi readily accepts.  
 

* * *

  


Ryoma has grown taller; he will never reach Momoshiro's height, but the height difference is now not so obvious - maybe _just_ a little shorter than Eiji, thinks Oishi, and feels a pang when he thinks this, although he does not know why. 

It's strange to hear Momoshiro call the younger man "Ryoma" instead of "Echizen". Ryoma, too, has dropped the "-sempai", but that is to be expected; the two have been living together for three years now and probably have been lovers for the same amount of time, and they _are_ in their early twenties now, after all. 

It's been too long, thinks Oishi, with a pang of regret, since he's bothered to get in touch with all the others. 

Dinner is a simple, yet warm, affair, and Oishi spends his time catching up on what the others have been doing. When Momoshiro asks how Eiji is, however, there is a strained silence, and Ryoma and Momoshiro exchange a puzzled look. 

The evening wears on, and Oishi - with the help of a little wine that Momoshiro has brought out - eventually ends up telling the whole story to Momoshiro and Ryoma, because it feels so much better to talk to _someone_ about it, and talking to Eiji, who is usually his confidant for matters that trouble him, is not an option here. 

Oishi finds Momoshiro and Ryoma surprisingly understanding - or maybe this is not so surprising, he reflects, for it's been many years since he last saw them, and they've probably weathered their own storms too, and come out of them stronger and more mature, both as individuals and together.  
 

* * *

  


Oishi is a frequent guest at Momoshiro and Ryoma's house after that evening, finding the welcoming, relaxed atmosphere soothing; and Momoshiro and Ryoma's banter, still much the same as all those years ago, is a comforting and familiar note amidst the discordant symphony his life seems to have become. 

He has not shared a bed with Eiji since the night he realised that the other was in love with him. 

Things with Eiji have, again, gravitated toward a surreal type of normalcy. Oishi wakes Eiji in the mornings, and they eat breakfast together before leaving for class; when they come back, there is the inevitable competition for who gets the bathroom first (although Oishi invariably gives in), they have dinner together and tell each other about their day. 

Neither ever mentions the nights they were intimate, although the issue hangs between them, an invisible presence that keeps them apart, even when they are not. Oishi knows that Eiji wants more than what they have now; it shows in every little gesture, every lingering touch or glance. And every time Eiji fixes him with that searing, bright blue gaze, there's that feeling of reaching out in the dark, blindly groping, searching for spindly-bright, brittle shards of something just beyond the edges of his comprehension. 

It is this confusion that Oishi confides to Momoshiro and Ryoma one wintry afternoon while he is at their apartment. All the strain Oishi has been under lately is starting to show, and Momoshiro and Ryoma, although they do not say it, are worried about him. 

Momoshiro suggests that maybe Oishi should take a break and think things over, and find out what it is he really wants. 

"Although," he adds, scratching his head with a sheepish smile, "I'm not really the best person to ask for advice about all this. Me and Ryoma...well, I kinda made a mess of things in the beginning, too." 

Ryoma, who has been silent for most of the evening - matters of the heart are not his forte - snorts, then smirks at Momoshiro. 

"If you want to," he adds, turning to Oishi, "you can stay with us for a while." 

Oishi initially declines; he feels that he's been imposing on them way too much already, but Momoshiro assures him that it's not a problem. 

"Besides," he adds with a grin, "then I'll have someone to talk to about something _other_ than tennis." 

"Oi," retorts Ryoma, and Momoshiro laughs; and Oishi, smiling a little, gratefully accepts their invitation - maybe it'll do him and Eiji some good to spend a little time apart, for him to sort out his muddled feelings. His indecisiveness is only hurting both Eiji and himself anyway.  
 

* * *

  


That evening, Oishi tells Eiji that he will be staying with Momoshiro and Ryoma for a while. 

Eiji's slender figure stiffens, and his eyes look huge and dark in the shadowy room. "Oishi - it's my fault, isn't it?" 

Oishi is startled despite himself. "What - Eiji, of course it's not your fault." 

"It...it isn't either of our faults." He takes a deep breath. "This isn't a permanent arrangement, anyway. I just...need to sort out something." 

Eiji hesitates, then nods, slowly. He covers the space of the room in a heartbeat, and wraps his arms around Oishi with surprising strength. 

"Oishi...I'll wait for you." His voice, soft and broken and too unlike him, is almost a sob, and Oishi almost reels from the surge of protective tenderness that washes over him at that moment. 

He wants to return Eiji's fierce embrace, tell him how sorry he is that he's hurt him, because Eiji deserves so much better than this and he doesn't deserve Eiji's love and oh _God_ , he really doesn't want to hurt Eiji any more. 

He does none of this, because he doesn't trust himself to find the right words.  
 

* * *

  


Oishi moves into Momoshiro and Ryoma's spare room the next day. He is incorporated into their daily routine with minimal fuss, although seeing the two of them together, seeing how they tease and banter and laugh and _complete_ each other just makes him feel more empty...realising that that was how he and Eiji used to be. 

After three and a half weeks, he discovers, with a shock so sudden it is almost physically painful, that he no longer remembers _just_ how Tezuka's lips felt on his, or Tezuka's gentle-roughness when he took him; and the brown eyes with their piercing gaze that used to haunt his dreams has now faded to a hazy memory. 

("Change," Momoshiro tells Oishi, with uncharacteristic gentleness, "may not be such a bad thing.") 

...and he realises how much he misses having to wake Eiji up every morning, and grabbing the freshly-toasted bread out of the toaster as Eiji fries eggs for breakfast, and worrying because Eiji's back late from class (there was that one time that Eiji'd come home two hours late because he'd seen someone who he swore looked _exactly_ like Ryoma on the street, and he'd pounced on the hapless boy only to find out it _wasn't_ Ryoma after all, then had to spend the next hour apologising profusely and helping to pick up the other's belongings, scattered when Eiji had tackled him - and Oishi couldn't help laughing, worry dissipating as Eiji told him what had happened, because that was just so uniquely _Eiji_ ). 

Oishi wonders how he has managed to go for so long without seeing what is so obvious to him now. 

(And Eiji had known, hadn't he? That Oishi would figure it out when he was ready. And he'd said that he would wait. He'd promised. 

_Eiji..._ )  
 

* * *

  


The next day, he thanks Momoshiro and Ryoma for their hospitality, and tells them that he is ready to go home. 

Momoshiro smiles at him. 

"Next time you come over," says Momoshiro slowly, "maybe you could bring Eiji, too." His voice is just a little too casual, tone a little too careful; but this time, there's no more feeling of groping blindly for those sparkling shards of comprehension just beyond his reach. 

This time, he reaches out with both hands, and catches the slippery, spindly-bright strands between his fingers, clutching the twinkling splinters securely to his consciousness. 

Oishi smiles, his first genuine smile in a long while. "Maybe I will."  
 

* * *

  


That night, when Oishi gets home (and he can finally call it _home_ ), he makes love to Eiji. 

(/ _So different from how things were last time_.../) 

Later, Eiji says nothing, but looks into Oishi's eyes, and seems content with what he sees there. He snuggles up to Oishi's side, and murmurs, "welcome home". 

Oishi knows he's talking about more than just moving back into the apartment. 

(/... _but maybe that's not such a bad thing_./) 

He turns, and slips his arms around his slender partner...and for the first time, looks into blue eyes instead of brown.  
 

* * *

  


~ _Epilogue_ ~ 

The doorbell rings, and Ryoma grumbles half-heartedly as he rises from his comfortable spot on the sofa in front of the TV. Momoshiro gleefully dives in, curling up in the warm spot and switching the TV channel as Ryoma turns around to glare at him. 

"Oi," mutters Ryoma, attention still on his lover as he pulls open the front door. 

He is greeted by a blast of icy wind, and a couple of stray snowflakes drift in, meandering down to sparkle on the carpet as Ryoma gapes at his visitors. 

"Wha - ? Eiji-sempaAAAAAAHHHH - " 

" _Ochibi!_ " 

Ryoma's vision is abruptly obscured by an enthusiastic blur of reddish-brown hair, flailing limbs and a snow-dusted jacket, as he is tackled to the ground by an overenthusiastic Eiji. 

Momoshiro turns, and his smile is wide and delighted as he hops up from the couch and comes over to greet the visitors. He steps over the squirming mass on the floor, cheerfully ignoring Ryoma's yells for help, and takes Oishi's coat from him. 

"Some things never change, eh?" He indicates a laughing Eiji and a rather nonplussed Ryoma still tussling on the floor. 

"Yeah," Oishi's smile is genuine and unforced. "But I'm glad some things do." 

_End._

 


End file.
